OceanSide church of Christ
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HAVE WE BECOME TOO
BUSY?
It was Ben Franklin who said, "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander
time, for that is the stuff life is made of." What is time? Einstein said it is what
the clock read. There is solar time, Atomic time, daytime, nighttime, local
time, good times, and old times.
The Bible says that Felix waited for a "convenient time." Paul said that “now is the accepted time" (2 Cor. 6:2)
and that the "time is short"
(1 Cor. 7:29). James said “life is but a vapor, that appeareth for a
little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). Every birthday is a milestone of the
relentless march of time and a reminder that we are quickly passing through the
sands of this world. “As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the
field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the
place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting
upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such
as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.”
(Psa. 103:15-18).
We have learned that we can never go back, only forward in
time.
Time comes from God, though God himself
lives outside the boundaries of time. “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one
thing, that one day is with the Lord as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8). Time began when God created the
universe—“And God called the light Day,
and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first
day” (Gen. 1:5). God created the stars in their courses
that determine our hours, days, months, and years (Gen. 1:16).
As the one who has control over time, God gives it out to us a moment at
a time. Someday, we shall stand
before God and turn in, as it were, a time card accounting for how we have used
his gift (cf. 1 Cor. 4:2; Lk. 16:2).
Are we good stewards of the “time” we have been given by God? We should all say with Moses, "So teach us to number our days, that we
may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psa.
90:12).
We are to look to Jesus for our example (1 Peter 2:21). Jesus was never too busy, and he did not waste time. He always took time to pray and mediate (Lk. 9:18), to go to worship services (Lk. 4:16) to give attention to the sick (Gal.6:9), to rest (Lk. 8:22-25), to give attention to the children (Mt. 19:13, 14), and even found time to attend a social event, the wedding feast in Cana (Jn. 2:1-10). Jesus was certainly the example we should imitate. Jesus was master over His time, and we should ever strive to be the same. “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:14-16).
